Letters | Guns, kids and the National Rifle Association

Kids and guns

When I was a 4-year-old, our father bought a tennis racquet for me and the same racquet for my brother David, who was then a 6-year-old. We both played a lot of tennis and I still play a great deal. Learning the serve and a one-handed backhand was very difficult at that young age. I did not master either shot until I was perhaps 9 or 10 years old. Even then I hit many shots off target and still do - as does every paid tennis professional we see on TV every day on the Tennis Channel. When I was four my oldest brother Roger was 14 and I know I could not beat him until I was perhaps 17 or 18. It took a lot of practice to get to that point. A lot of good shots but a lot of miss-hits.

Fast forward to the year 2013. Did you know that today a parent can buy a deadly weapon for his/her 5-year-old son or daughter? Yes, I just learned that it happens every day. The gun lobby thinks it is OK to put a deadly weapon in the hands of a 5-year-old, a Crickett Rifle. A cute blue one for the boys and a cute pink one for the girls. Never mind that the internal mechanism functions exactly the same as do military and police rifles. They shoot to kill.

It is reported in the CJ that a business leader in Burkesville, Ky., commented that this type of accident can happen to any of us. I say that a wayward shot with a tennis racquet causes little harm as does a foul ball by a Little Leaguer. I am surely glad that when the five of us were kids our father bought us tennis racquets instead of rifles. I am certain that my little sister, who was 3 when I was 5, agrees.

STEPHEN P. IMHOFF

Louisville 40206

Gun merchants

Anyone who reads about the accidental shooting of a 2-year-old girl in Kentucky should be disgusted by the fact that gun manufacturers are allowed to make and sell guns specifically for children as young as age 5. These merchants of death have no concern for how their product can kill and maim little children. These instruments of death are advertised on a gun manufacturer's website in the "Kids Corner" under such cute names as "Crickett" and "Chipmunk," and come in colors, including blue and pink.

These death merchants hide behind the Second Amendment and are supported by the National Rifle Association and most members of the Congress, who are nothing more than accomplices in spreading this death among our kids. The manufacturers, the NRA, and the Congress have only one goal ... money and more money. Many in Congress lack the intestinal fortitude to face up to the manufacturer and the NRA. Our senators from Kentucky fall into this category, as well.

The gun manufacturers and their supporters have lost all sense of decency.

Just what does the ability to sell guns to children have to do with the Second Amendment, which states: "A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed."

After all, a child of 5 is much too young to serve in a "well regulated Militia."

STAN DOMZALSKI

Louisville 40223

Kids killing kids

The gun lobby keeps on winning. Now gun manufacturers are selling .22 caliber rifles for 5- to 7-year-olds! Guess what? Children are pointing these Second Amendment-right devices at their 2-year-old siblings and killing them!

Whatever happened to cap pistols? Whatever happened to BB guns when you were about 10 or 12 years old? How many of us could own a sling shot at 5? A BB gun at 7? Nobody in their right mind would have given me or any of my playmates a deadly weapon at the age of 5.

In "A Christmas Story," Ralphie almost shoots his eye out. In "To Kill a Mockingbird," Atticus wouldn't let Jem have a rifle. I remember an episode in "The Rifleman" when Lucas McCain wouldn't let his son have a gun. Some folks think we are so much more sophisticated than those portrayals of loving parenthood, and that our 5-year-old children are so much smarter. What planet do those parents come from? NRA.

I believe the gun lobby is powerful, the politicians are just spineless, and children are killing each other.

MICHAEL RADMACHER

Louisville 40205

Shocking sentence

Thank you for your excellent editorial about the NRA marketing guns to children. I was saddened, sickened and shocked to hear the story about the 5-year-old boy who shot his 2-year-old sister in Burkesville, Ky. My thoughts and prayers are with the family. Aside from the fact that young children actually are given guns, there is one sentence in the story that speaks volumes about this gut-wrenching event. Burkesville County Coroner Gary White said "he didn't believe he (the 5-year-old) fully understood yet what had happened." Astounding! This 5-year-old boy didn't understand that a gun's purpose is to kill and that he killed his sister! He will have to live with this for the rest of his life.

PAM GERSH

Louisville 40241

ADVERTISEMENT

ADVERTISEMENT

ADVERTISEMENT

Email this article

Letters | Guns, kids and the National Rifle Association

When I was a 4-year-old, our father bought a tennis racquet for me and the same racquet for my brother David, who was then a 6-year-old. We both played a lot of tennis and I still play a great deal.